Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
|||
Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Animal behaviour
Behavior medicine is perhaps the most rapidly emerging discipline
in animal health care. Small animal practice is reaching the point
where most practitioners are expected to offer their clients help
in the behavioral area.
This special volume provides twelve contributions that discuss different aspects of social and endocrine behaviors with an emphasis on the neural regulation of these behaviors. In addition, several review chapters address the neural plasticity that results from exposure to hormones or the experiences with the behavior. Finally, each of the contributions emphasizes future directions and incorporation of newly developed neuroscience techniques and approaches.
'What I like best about this fascinating book is the detail. Brian Butterworth doesn't just tell us stories of animals with numerical abilities: he tells us about the underlying science. Elegantly written and a joy to read' - Professor Ian Stewart, author of What's the Use? and Taming the Infinite 'Full of thought-provoking studies and animal observations' - Booklist 'Enlightening and entertaining' - Publishers Weekly The Hidden Genius of Animals: Every pet owner thinks their own dog, cat, fish or hamster is a genius. What makes CAN FISH COUNT? so exciting is the way it unveils just how widespread intelligence is in nature. Pioneering psychologist Brian Butterworth describes the extraordinary numerical feats of all manner of species ranging from primates and mammals to birds, reptiles, fish and insects. Whether it's lions deciding to fight or flee, frogs competing for mates, bees navigating their way to food sources, fish assessing which shoal to join, or jackdaws counting friends when joining a mob - every species shares an ability to count. Homo Sapiens may think maths is our exclusive domain, but this book shows that every creature shares a deep-seated Darwinian ability to understand the intrinsic language of our universe: mathematics CAN FISH COUNT? is that special sort of science book - a global authority in his field writing an anecdotally-rich and revelatory narrative which changes the way you perceive something we take for granted.
This is the Second Edition of a well-received book that reflects a fresh, integrated coverage of the concepts and scientific measurement of stress and welfare of animals including humans. This book explains the basic biological principles of coping with many forms of adversity. The major part of this work is devoted to explaining scientifically usable concepts in stress and welfare. A wide range of welfare indicators are highlighted in detail with examples being drawn from man and other species. The necessity for combining information from disciplines is emphasized with a one-health, one-welfare approach. This information forms the basis for a synthesis of new ideas. Among the issues covered are: - How brain and body systems regulate using feelings, physiological responses, behaviour and responses to pathology - Limits to adaptation - Assessing positive and negative welfare during both short-term and long-term situations - Ethical problems and suggested solutions A proper assessment of animal welfare is essential to take informed decisions about what is morally acceptable in terms of practice and in the development of a more effective legislation. This work encapsulates a very wide body of literature on scientific aspects of animal welfare and will thus prove a valuable asset for animal welfare scientists, psychologists, students and teachers of all forms of biology, behaviour, medicine, veterinary medicine and animal usage.
Sexual Selection in Primates provides an up-to-date account of all aspects of sexual selection in primates, combining theoretical insights, comprehensive reviews of the primate literature and comparative perspectives from relevant work on other mammals, birds and humans. Topics include sex roles, sexual dimorphism in weapons, ornaments and armaments, sex ratios, sex differences in behaviour and development, mate choice, sexual conflict, sex-specific life history strategies, sperm competition and infanticide. The outcome of the evolutionary struggle between the sexes, the flexibility of roles and the leverage of females are discussed and emphasised throughout. Sexual Selection in Primates is aimed at graduates and researchers in primatology, animal behaviour, evolutionary biology and comparative psychology.
Unlike most other large mammals, the Soay sheep population of Hirta in the St. Kilda archipelago show persistent oscillations, sometimes increasing or declining by more than 60% in a year. This study explores the causes of these oscillations and their consequences for selection on genetic and phenotypic variation within the population, drawing on studies over the past twenty years of the life-histories and reproductive careers of many sheep. It will be essential reading for vertebrate ecologists, demographers, evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists.
The subjects of stress and animal welfare are currently attracting immense interest. This book brings together a range of perspectives from biomedical research (including human health and animal models of human stress) on stress and welfare, and assesses new approaches to conceptualising and alleviating stress.
This book concentrates on the marine mammalian group of Odontocetes, the toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises. In 23 chapters, a total of 40 authors describe general patterns of ethological concepts of odontocetes in their natural environments, with a strong bent towards behavioral ecology. Examples are given of particularly well-studied species and species groups for which enough data exist, especially from the past 15 years. The aim is to give a modern flavor of present knowledge of ethology and behavior of generally large-brained behaviorally flexible mammals that have evolved quite separately from social mammals on land. As well, the plight of populations and species due to humans is described in multiple chapters, with the goal that an understanding of behavior can help to solve or alleviate at least some human-made problems.
Hans Kruuk, a life-long naturalist, tells the fascinating story of carnivores and humans' intricate relationships with them. The book is illustrated with specially commissioned drawings, and deals not only with the wild beauty of carnivores and their conservation, but also with the topics of furs and medicine, man-eaters and sheep-killers. Kruuk explains in simple terms the role of carnivores in nature, how they impact human life, art and literature, and how we instinctively respond to them and why.
Being a mom is a tough job—but imagine doing it in the jungle or out on the safari, faced by the ravages of the elements, a scarcity of resources, and the threat of predators prowling at all times of the day and night. In Wild Moms, Dr. Carin Bondar takes readers on an enthralling tour of the animal kingdom as she explores the phenomenon of motherhood in the wild. A journey through motherhood for the animal kingdom—from the initial phases of gestation and pregnancy through breastfeeding and toddler-rearing and trying to parent a teenager through empty nest syndrome (which, in many of these cases, is quite literal!) to being a grandmother. In Wild Moms, Dr. Bondar answers a whole host of questions about the animal kingdom: How do moms in the animal kingdom cope with crying babies and potty training? How does breastfeeding work in the wild—particularly when a mother is nursing not one baby at a time, but a whole litter? Accessible and entertaining, Wild Moms is a celebration of moms everywhere—and a book guaranteed to make readers think about motherhood in an entirely new way.
Getting from here to there may be simple for one individual. But as
any parent, scout leader, or CEO knows, herding a whole troop in
one direction is a lot more complicated. Who leads the group? Who
decides where the group will travel, and using what information?
How do they accomplish these tasks?
This multi-author volume provides both a conceptual context and an instruction in methods for many aspects of sex ratio research. The book discusses theory, statistical analysis, and genetics, as well as research in one of a wide spectrum of animal, plant, and microbial taxa. Sex Ratios: Concepts and Research Methods is primarily intended for graduate and professional behavioral and evolutionary ecologists in this field, but it will also be useful to biologists building evolutionary models, and researchers analyzing data involving proportions or comparisons across phylogenetically related species.
When it was originally released in 1980, Jeanne Altmann's book transformed the study of maternal primate relationships by focusing on motherhood and infancy within a complex ecological and sociological context. Available again with a new foreword by the author, Baboon Mothers and Infants is a classic book that has been, in its own right, a mother to a generation of influential research and will no doubt provide further inspiration.
This volume brings together primary data from a variety of primate species living in both natural habitats and experimental settings, and explores the variables that may play a role in primates' behavioral strategies. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that predator sensitive foraging is relevant to many primates, of various body sizes and group sizes and living in different environments. Eat or be Eaten encourages further discussion and investigation of the subject and will make fascinating reading for researchers and students in primatology, ecology, and animal behavior.
With heart-shaped face, buff back and wings, and pure white underparts, the barn owl is a distinctive and much-loved bird which has fascinated people from many cultures throughout history. How did the barn owl colonise the world? What adaptations have made this bird so successful? How is the increasing impact of human disturbance affecting these animals? Answering these questions and more, Roulin brings together the main global perspectives on the evolution, ecology and behaviour of the barn owl and its relatives, discussing topics such as the high reproductive potential, physiology, social and family interaction, pronounced colour variation and global distribution. Accessible and beautifully illustrated, this definitive volume on the barn owl is for researchers, professionals and graduate students in ornithology, animal behaviour, ecology, conservation biology and evolutionary biology, and will also appeal to amateur ornithologists and nature lovers.
Infanticide by males is relatively common in primates, carnivores, and rodents, although it tends to be rare even in species in which it occurs. Is this behavior pathological or accidental, or does it reflect a conditional reproductive strategy for males in certain circumstances? In this book, case studies and reviews confirm the adaptive nature of infanticide by males in primates, and help to predict which species should be vulnerable to this phenomenon. Much of the book is devoted to exploring the evolutionary consequences of the threat of infanticide by males for social and reproductive behavior and physiology. Written for graduate students and researchers in animal behavior, behavioral ecology, biological anthropology, and social psychology, this book shows that social systems are shaped by ecological pressures, as well as social pressures such as infanticide risk.
Motivation: A Biobehavioural Approach provides the reader with an understanding of why individuals exhibit certain behaviors, and what causes these actions. Roderick Wong presents an analysis of motivated behavior such as sexual activity, parental behavior, food selection, and fear or aggression, from a biological perspective. Each chapter focuses on the individual systems underlying specific motivational states that result in motivated acts. The author discusses similarities, differences, and integration between these motivational systems throughout the volume. Using a framework derived from research and theory from animal behavior and comparative psychology, he analyzes relevant issues in human motivation such as mate choice, nepotism, attachment and independence, sensation-seeking, obesity, and parent-offspring conflict. This book will be particularly useful for undergraduate students in psychology or behavioral science taking courses in motivation and emotion, comparative psychology, animal behavior, or biological psychology.
The size and composition of primate groups varies tremendously across species, within species, and within groups over time. Written by leading authorities, this book focuses on the causes and consequences of variation in the number of males per group. This variation lies at the heart of understanding adaptive variation among primate social systems. The volume also provides an extensive overview of variation in group composition across all major primate taxa using up-to-date reviews, case studies, evolutionary theory, and theoretical models. A comparative review of birds and selected other mammals is included. This text will become a favorite with all those interested in the behavioral ecology of primates.
How does an understanding of the behavior of a given animal species contribute to its conservation? The answer has profound consequences for our efforts to conserve endangered species. Behaviour and Conservation links the extraordinary advances in behavioral ecology over the past thirty years with the new discipline of conservation biology. It shows how an evolutionary approach can help solve problems in practical conservation, and suggests a new direction for behavioral ecology. Leading authorities in animal behavior address the ways in which behavior and conservation interact, investigating the conservation impact of people, habitat loss and fragmentation, threats to wild populations of animals, conservation priorities, and the use of behavioral approaches for conservation applications.
Social learning commonly refers to the social transfer of information and skill among individuals. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors that include where and how to obtain food, how to interact with members of one's own social group, and how to identify and respond appropriately to predators. Mammalian Social Learning discusses a wide diversity of species, some of which have never been discussed in this context before, with particular reference made to their natural life strategies. Expert chapters consider social learning in humans in comparison with other mammals, especially in their technological and craft traditions. Moreover, for the first time, attention is given to the social learning abilities of prehistoric hominids.
This book sets out a framework for adaptive explanations of behavior, and uses it to provide analyses of a range of biological issues such as energetic gain, energy-predation trade-offs, dynamic games, state-dependent life histories, annual routines, and fluctuating environments. The volume gives a definitive account of this exciting new field, summarizing previous research, presenting new material, and suggesting directions for future research. The framework adopted in this book provides a common currency for comparing diverse actions. Ultimately this could lead to the development of state-dependent dynamic models. This book will be a revelation for graduate students and researchers interested in behavioral or evolutionary biology.
Behaviour describes animal and human behaviour, including environmental influence, behavioural development, courtship and social interaction. It covers all the material required for the study of behaviour at A-level, whilst at the same time providing an accessible and informative introduction to the fascinating science of behaviour. The authors provide a list of further reading for those who wish to learn more. The Advanced Biology Topics series of books will be of interest to students studying a wide variety of biological subjects at A-level, or as part of a vocational or undergraduate course.
This book describes the sampling and statistical methods used most often by behavioral ecologists and field biologists. Written by a biologist and two statisticians, it provides a rigorous discussion together with worked examples of statistical concepts and methods that are generally not covered in introductory courses, and which are consequently poorly understood and applied by field biologists. The first section reviews important issues such as defining the statistical population and the sampling plan when using nonrandom methods for sample selection, bias, interpretation of statistical tests, confidence intervals, and multiple comparisons. After a detailed discussion of sampling methods and multiple regression, subsequent chapters discuss specialized problems such as pseudoreplication, and their solutions. This volume will quickly become the favorite statistical handbook for all field biologists.
Many mammals, such as otters, live in close association with rivers and streams, feeding in them, or using them as a place of safety or means of escape from predators. The distinct adaptations that riparian mammals have evolved in order to live in these environments also handicap them for living elsewhere. These animals are therefore threatened by alterations to their environment. In recent years, our rivers have become highly polluted, and have been subject to bankside modifications for agriculture and forestry, enhanced or decreased water flow, and recreation. As a result, they have become less and less suitable for these highly specialized animals. This book looks at the habitat utilization, adaptation, feeding ecology, and conservation status of a range of riparian mammals. It gives insights into the problems facing these fascinating animals, and how they might be overcome. |
You may like...
Explorations in Archaeology and…
Anton Killin, Sean Allen-Hermanson
Hardcover
R2,812
Discovery Miles 28 120
Resilience and Aging - Emerging Science…
Andrew V Wister, Theodore D. Cosco
Hardcover
R4,046
Discovery Miles 40 460
Biotremology: Studying Vibrational…
Peggy S. M. Hill, Reinhard Lakes-Harlan, …
Hardcover
R4,331
Discovery Miles 43 310
The Pattern Seekers - How Autism Drives…
Simon Baron-Cohen
Paperback
The Neuropharmacology of Nicotine…
David J. K. Balfour, Marcus R. Munafo
Hardcover
Coding Strategies in Vertebrate Acoustic…
Thierry Aubin, Nicolas Mathevon
Hardcover
R4,990
Discovery Miles 49 900
|